This invention relates generally to electrical machines, and more specifically to methods and apparatus for controlling current in an electrical generator.
At least some known electrical generator systems, for example at least some known wind turbine generators, deliver both active and reactive power to, and/or absorb both active and reactive power from, a power grid. At least some known power grids' procedures, codes, and/or requirements dictate different current responses to different disturbances to the power grid, for example low voltage conditions. However, meeting such procedures, codes, and/or requirements may cause components of the electrical generator system to overload. To avoid overloading components of the system, at least some known electrical generator systems independently control active and reactive currents to limit a total, for example a phasor summation, of such currents. However, at least some known methods for limiting active and reactive currents still risk overloading components of the electrical generator system and/or may under-utilize an electrical power generation capacity of the system.